Kiichi
by ricahria
Summary: Hanamaki was an adorable person in Matsukawa's opinion, even if under that cuteness hid a scheming devil capable of wrecking havoc with nothing but a wicked idea and a seductive smirk. "What was that picture?" Hanamaki glanced up, noticed Matsukawa's presence and his lips turned into a smile. "I want it," he stated, hope gleaming in his eyes. He wasn't getting his way... Right?
1. Opinionated duo and pets

Hanamaki lounged on their dark, moss green loveseat, head propped onto a couple of chocolate brown pillows. His feet were dangling over the hand support, making it obvious that the piece of furniture was painfully tiny for the long-limbed man.

He was flipping through his phone, scrolling down on Pinterest, a guilty pleasure that he wasn't feeling so guilty about. Hanamaki enjoyed social media, especially the ones based on photographs like Pinterest and Instagram, oh and Tumblr. He was addicted to Tumblr, big time.

"Mattsun?" Hanamaki inquired, closing a few tabs and then opening a few more.

"Mhmm?" Came a muffled answer from somewhere behind him. Hanamaki didn't care what Matsukawa was doing, he was satisfied by knowing he had the man's attention. Finding the picture he'd been searching for, he swiftly send it to his boyfriend.

A bing was heard, some shuffling, a cling when metal hit against metal and the faucet running, then closing. Hanamaki continued scrolling down on Pinterest. He found a picture of a cute doggy, saved it into his own collection, and continued.

While wiping his hands on a torn and suffered rag, Matsukawa stepped behind the loveseat which had admittedly seen better days. Hanamaki had complained about the piece of furniture but Matsukawa kind of liked it. He thought it had character.

As he caught a sight of peach pink hair on one end, he neared it, and leaned on the back rest. His hands spread on the back, the damp rag clamped between his fingers, Matsukawa studied Hanamaki's face.

The boy's nose was scrunched adorably, eyebrows knitted together in concentration as his eyes ran across the screen held in front of his face with long but petite fingers. Hanamaki's skin was pale which helped accentuate the few faint freckles he had as well as his small but deliciously pinkish lips, now pursed. An adorable person in Matsukawa's opinion, though he knew that under that cuteness hid a scheming devil capable of wrecking havoc with nothing but a wicked idea and a seductive smirk.

"What was that picture?"

Hanamaki glanced up, he noticed Matsukawa's presence and his lips turned into a smile. "I want it," he stated, hope gleaming in his eyes.

Matsukawa snorted. "You want a zoo?" He sputtered, doubting every word, but getting an ominous feeling. "You are kidding, right?"

Hanamaki scoffed at that and changed his position. He rose to sit, tucking his left leg half-crossed underneath himself, right limb dangling over the edge, toes touching the floor. He faced his beloved, with disbelief evident in his face. "That was an aquarium." He couldn't believe his boyfriend didn't know that.

"In a zoo," Matsukawa reminded him.

"Details."

"Rather big details darling."

"Don't be overdramatic now, you're not your eyebrows." Hanamaki went back to his phone, feeling the vibrations indicating a notice or an announcement. Tumblr needed him.

"We live in a shoebox."

"Your studio is big."

"You are not using my studio as a fish bowl." Matsukawa got worried. He loved his studio. Hell, it was a corner in their bedroom, filled with his stuff in an area quaranteened with duck tape, courtesy of yours truly, but he loved it. Hanamaki was not getting his way with this one... Right?

"Rude."

"Hiro, please, I beg you. Don't hurt my studio. It's my baby."

Hanamaki closed Tumblr, checked his Instagram and closed that too. He dropped his phone to his lap and looked directly at the curly haired man, who was sporting pleading eyes adorned by a face messed with splashes of paint. "I'm your baby." He pouted, giving Matsukawa those puppy dog eyes he had mastered a long time ago.

"Oh god don't do that." Matsukawa slumped and hit his forehead to his clutched hands on the back of the green loveseat. "FYI, my studio is my baby, you're my marshmallow. There's a difference."

"But I'm the one crying Daddy at night," Hanamaki remarked and Matsukawa groaned. He had a point. He had, but! "Fine, you're my babe, but my studio is still my baby."

Hanamaki wasn't satisfied with this explanation and just as he was about to voice it out, Matsukawa interrupted him. "But we have room for a terrarium. A lizard would be cool."

Hanamaki was horrified. "A lizard?!"

Matsukawa looked Hanamaki funny. Like he was being overdramatic. Because he was. "Yeah. Lizards are cool and cute. Double the affinity points."

"FISH ARE COOL AND CUTE AND COLORFUL. IT'S TRIPLE THE POINTS!" Hanamaki all but screeched. He couldn't believe his personal wacko was wacko enough to suggest they'd get a lizard. A slithering, psychotic, potentially poisonous reptile with one of those wiggly tongues and creepy eyes. Never. Hanamaki would swear on that.

"Lizards can be colorful," Matsukawa pointed out. He had gained his ground, more than happy that his studio was now forgotten and wasn't about to get mauled because Hanamaki wanted an aquarium. "Like chameleons or frogs."

"Frog is not a lizard."

"It's not? Well it's a reptile," Matsukawa mused while faking oblivious to Hanamaki's growing anxiety. Small payback for freaking him out because of the studio, Matsukawa surmised. Hanamaki deserved it. Nobody should threaten his baby. Although he wasn't even potentially serious about the whole terrarium thing. He just knew Hanamaki was quite terrified of reptiles and threatening the boy with it seemed like a good idea to make him think twice about wanting an aquarium.

"Please please please nooooo!" Hanamaki pleaded, fingers plastered over Matsukawa's on the back of the loveseat. He was kneeling on the sofa, puppy dog eyes long forgotten, in place were saucers of panic.

Matsukawa refrained a snicker. How easily had Hanamaki given up, he thought. He could bully the boy a while longer, it was his time to be devious for once.

"Oh, I don't know..." Matsukawa faked, propping his head better, fixing his face into a thoughtful expression. "It would be so much fun. Think about it, we could let it out of the terrarium and play with it every morning. I heard they like climbing on arms or shoulders," Matsukawa babbled, wiggling his fingers as if playing with an imaginary lizard climbing on his hand.

Hanamaki visibly shuddered at the image Matsukawa was painting for him. That was too much. In their bed?! Hell no!

Hanamaki hopped up from the sofa, startling Matsukawa in the process. He bee-lined towards their front door, grabbed his wallet and homekeys from the small table and stuffed his feet quite forcefully into his Converses.

"Hiro? Babe? What're you doing?" Matsukawa asked, slight panic evident in his voice. He grabbed the back rest, knuckles going whiter by the passing second.

"What does it look like?!" Hanamaki spat back, furiously battling with his shoelaces. He hated tying laces so why the hell did he own Converses?

"Like you're strangling your feet."

"Yes! No!" Hanamaki screamed, giving up on the stupid thing. They were walkable even without tying the laces. They wouldn't just drop off in the middle of a stride, like in the movies, so why tie them.

Hanamaki grabbed his coat from the rack, shrugged it on and turned towards his boyfriend. "If you're so adamant on getting that that wiggly slimy thingy, I'll just buy my little fishies first and then you can't say anything anymore!" Immediately after, Hanamaki pushed open their front door and ran out, not even bothering to slam the door shut after him.

Mouth hanging open, his jaw figuratively hitting the floor, Matsukawa stared after his boyfriend of five years. Did he just-? He wouldn't... Was Matsukawa's initial thoughts but who was he trying to kid? This was Hanamaki he was talking about. He certainly would do just that.

"Shit!" With that, Matsukawa grabbed his own wallet, had no idea where his keys were so he left them, kicked his feet into a pair of slippers and dashed out of the door and after his crazy man. At least he had the decency to throw the wooden square closed before he was flying down the second floor stairs.


	2. Chaotic duo with a showy entrance

Matsukawa reached Hanamaki just as he was grabbing the vertical door handle to the pet shop. The opening of the door let out a gleeful jingle as an announcement to the world that Hanamaki had arrived. And Matsukawa.

The slightly taller man literally tackled the other, not bothering to slow down as he finally reached him. The duo stumbled in through the door, knocking over a life-sized billboard of some celeb hugging a cute chihuahua. While falling the cardboard man let loose a basket full of tennisballs, dozens bouncing every which way on the sleek floor and while doing piruettes to avoid stepping on any of those round yellowish ankle killers Matsukawa found himself smacking his face into a white pillar sporting a poster about healthy snacks for dogs. Hanamaki on the other hand found himself bumping against a display of chewtoys creating an opera worthy spectacle out of different kind of whines, squeals and squeakes which left everyone's ears ringing until next spring equinox.

While moaning in agony Matsukawa saw something pink flash from the corner of his eye. He tried to soothe his nose which was pulsating with pain from the run-in with the pillar but rushed after the pink. It was dangerous to lose sight of the pink. He could potentially end up losing his studio to a freaking aquarium. That was serious.

Matsukawa circled another pillar in his way, this time taking caution to avoid physical obstacles to the best of his abilities while continuing with his chase. He spotted Hanamaki nearing a table with the registers and his panic spiked. He calculated it to be impossible to make it in time without drastic measures so that's exactly what he did.

Matsukawa grapped the nearest non-deadly object he happened to see - meet Christoph, a squeaky, plucked, bright yellow chicken with stupid eyes, red comb and pointy limbs - and chucked it at his boyfriend with all the love he could muster. Beloved Christoph, affectionately Chrissy, flew faster than any chicken before, and hit the target smack on. Matsukawa did a small fist pump, proud of his aim that hasn't gone rusty even after quitting volleyball years back. Although granted chucking a yellow chew toy at your boyfriend most likely required far less finesse than hitting a volleyball at high speed onto the opponents' court.

Hanamaki stumbled when the yellow chicken struck the side if his head with a pathetic squeak, causing his balance to crumble. The pink haired boy tripped over his legs and steamrolled right into the register table, somehow flattening the blaringly yellow chew toy under himself, causing another long whiny squeak to break out from the toy when he sank to the floor on top of it.

When Matsukawa reached the register himself, Hanamaki was dragging himself up the once mauled table and mumbling about flying chickens. Just as Hanamaki was about to open his mouth, Matsukawa thrust his hand to cover the troublesome body part.

"I'd like to buy a lizard," Matsukawa sputtered out, not sure why he said that. He was about to correct himself when he felt something warm and wet touch his palm. Surprised, and accompanied by a very manly yelp, he pulled back his hand, revealing a very unamused frown underneath. Matsukawa wiped his hand onto his clothes, trying to get rid of the saliva and got distracted for a few seconds.

"He meant an aquarium," Hanamaki corrected for the cashier girl who looked scared beyond her wits. Hanamaki gave the girl an odd look, seemingly wanting to ask why she was so scared, but didn't get the opportunity. Matsukawa was onto him again. This time he stuffed one of those flexi rubbery ball toys into Hanamaki's mouth to disable the man's ability to speak. He succeeded. But the creative pink haired man adapted and evolved, or maybe more befitting would be to say he regressed. Hanamaki went off on a tangent consisting of loud muffles and whines and other similar sounds but somehow Matsukawa could understand the contents. He was being profusely insulted and for the following few nights the moss green loveseat would be his best friend. Without Netflix. Brutal.

Matsukawa was about to try to salvage himself from his boyfriend's wrath but he was interrupted by a middle-aged woman with dark red hair pulled into a messy bun, sporting the pet shop uniform of chocolate brown T-shirt with the shop's logo - white bone next to a paw print of the same color - and dark blue jeans. The woman had a name tag where 'Kagawa' read in bolded letters. The font was clear but ugly. Matsukawa pitied the person who actually thought the design of the logo and the uniform looked even remotely good. It was hideous.

The woman lifted her hands to her hips, mouth in a tight line and eyes narrowed in anger. "Boys," she started and Matsukawa and Hanamaki audibly gulped in unison. She sounded eerily scary. Her tone was clear but void just like the calm before a storm. Terrifying.

Just before launching onto her tirade, the lady discarded her angry look and replaced it with a worried frown Matsukawa had seen his grandmother wear when she used to scold him. "I've never seen anyone more enthusiastic about having a pet, than you two darlings, but for good riddance don't hurt yourselves. And before you can buy anything, please go see your potential new family members, it's not like you can adopt your new baby without meeting them first. But before that, you two will clean up this mess and apologize to Hitoka. You two gave the poor girl the worst fright of her life with that ruckus."

Shocked beyond belief, the two stared at the mighty woman in front of them. She could have done anything, chew them out, bitch for eternity, throw them out of the shop, feed them to the wolves and call the cops on them. But she didn't. She chose mercy.

"Is she...?" Matsukawa asked tentatively and Hanamaki spat away the ball still stuffed in his mouth and nodded. "A merciful goddess. I'm gonna worship her." He decided.

"Me too."

"Oh, and I almost forgot," the woman pointed a finger at the boys and then at the ball rolling towards one shelf. "You're buying that."


	3. Enamored duo and their naming sense

When Matsukawa fished out the last tennis ball from under a shelf holding cat toys and other entertainment for the furballs, Hanamaki glided to him. All he had had to do was collect a few chewtoys from the floor and correct the register table which had moved a good 10 centimeters from the impact. Matsukawa glanced at his boyfriend, still feeling a little dubious over his antics. Was the aquarium forgotten yet, or not?

"Soooo..." Hanamaki was kicking the floor in a nervous tick and played with his fingers like a flustered schoolgirl. Matsukawa eyed the man carefully. What was he scheming this time?

Hanamaki glanced at Matsukawa, the other halted in his action and fully committed to hearing what he had to say. Only now, did Hanamaki have the time to actually look at his boyfriend better after the whole ordeal. Well, he had been checking him out earlier when Matsukawa had been crouching and kneeling and crawling on all-fours hunting those balls he had knocked over. It had been a view. But standing up he was even better.

Matsukawa had his working overalls tied at his waist, covered in splatters of paint and other weird elements the man worked with. Paint was also smeared on the plain black T-shirt he wore underneath as well as on his face. His naturally curly black hair was shining even darker because of the sweat glistening on his forehead. Hanamaki thought Matsukawa looked unbelievably sexy in his working attire, but jumping his dick in a pet shop in front of a seemingly shy Hitoka didn't seem too appropriate. Not that he often cared about appropriate in the first place but Hitoka seemed way too pure and innocent to taint. And the slippers the man had opted for was sort of a turn-off too.

"Yes?" Matsukawa prompted as Hanamaki stayed quiet.

"Boys!" The pet shop worker lady called out to them, before Hanamaki managed to tell his business to Matsukawa so they forgot about it and shuffled to her.

"Thank you for cleaning up. Now, you can go see our babies. They're on the second floor," she recommended and made shooing gestures with her hands. Perplexed, the two did as told and climbed up the stairs to find either a lizard or an aquarium full of fish. Whichever they could end up agreeing on.

Hanamaki was the first one to let out an excited series of 'whoos' and 'aahs' at the sight. It was an animal paradise, well minus the cages, animal paradise probably wouldn't showcase cages, but otherwise a paradise, Hanamaki surmised.

The pink haired boy skid towards an array of guinea pigs in cages, all mulling around content. They were big balls of fluff that Hanamaki just had to pet, his life almost depended on it, but Matsukawa thought better of it. "Don't traumatize the cuties," he said, catching his boyfriend's hand before the eccentric could even attempt it.

With a disappointed pout, Hanamaki moved onto the next cages, catching a sight of colorful but smaller fluffballs. "Hamsters!" The boy screamed in utter delight, the exact copy of the earlier exchange about to ensue when a grey bundle of fluff turned to face his pink counterpart and the said person almost ceased all functions at the cuteness.

"Breathe, babe, breathe. I don't want my boyfriend to die because of cuteness overload." Matsukawa patted Hanamaki's head, fingers lingering in the inhumane softness for a while longer.

Hanamaki reveled in the affection, absolutely addicted to the feeling. He forgot the cute furball eyeing him curiously as his eyes closed in bliss, thoughts a hazy fog that he didn't even try to clear up. He loved it, felt like a junkie getting his fix after being denied of it for too long.

When the fingers halted their heavenly pampering, Hanamaki awoke from his stupor mildly disappointed. "Why did you stop?" He demanded, cocking his head to see what the problem was.

Matsukawa was staring to his left, somewhere Hanamaki couldn't see from his crouching position by the hamster cages. "I think I'm in love." The man stated, utter adoration evident in his tone.

A fleeting sense of dread crawled up Hanamaki's spine. "Love?" He choked out, worried as he saw Matsukawa hadn't directed it towards him. He's in love with someone else? How? Who? Why? Since when? Hanamaki's mind was about to hit a full on panic mode when the man removed his hand from his hair. But surprisingly Matsukawa proceeded to grab Hanamaki's hand in his and dragged the boy after him when he rushed down the aisle.

Hanamaki stumbled after him, barely keeping his legs in order enough not to fall flat on his nose. Without understanding what was going on Hanamaki was planted in front of a bright blue cage with a big impeller, curvy tubes going this way and that as well as a basic sandbox right next to a tiny wooden house. The setup was cute but he didn't see the occupant anywhere. Was it empty? More importantly was it relevant? What about the person Matsukawa fell in love with?

"What am I supposed to do here?" Hanamaki wanted to know because he had no clue. He was about to spread his arms in a display of dissatisfaction and confusion but found something familiar and comforting preventing him from doing so.

Matsukawa was hugging him, engulfing him into a warm bear hug from behind, his head tucked into Hanamaki's neck, peering at the blue cage in front of them. Hanamaki's heart was racing Mario Cart by itself and doing one hell of a job at it. He feared it'd drive off the course and miss a beat as a consequence. The closeness, heat and the warm breath brushing at his ear was making him go nuts. What was up with Matsukawa? Was he trying to give Hanamaki a seizure? If so, he was doing an exemplary job.

"She's a princess," Matsukawa adored, squeezing over Hanamaki's waist a bit tighter and swinging them delicately from left to right and back again. Hanamaki could feel the excitement and emotion rolling of the bear wrapped around him. He folded his hands to lay on top of Matsukawa's, about to mumble something corny befitting the situation but stilled. Now he saw it. Her. And he too, fell in love.

"Oh my god I'm going to be a daddy," Hanamaki squealed, bouncing up and down in Matsukawa's embrace.

"We, Hiro, we are going to be daddies," Matsukawa corrected and placed a quick kiss on Hanamaki's cheek. Hanamaki lit up like a Christmas tree dipped in red paint, making him look absolutely adorable. They were forming a family and it felt amazing in Matsukawa's opinion. He felt like he was drunk on happiness.

While rounding a corner, cheerfully about to check up on their very energetic duo of customers, Hitoka found the two and was about to call out to them. "Have you- Oh!" She shot her hands to cover her face which was blooming like a red rose out of embarrassment. "I- I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Oh gosh I didn't know! I'll let you two be!" She turned around and was about to sprint off but was stopped by Hanamaki's squeak.

"No no no no!" Hanamaki cried out as he scrambled away from Matsukawa's embrace. The taller man let him, seeing as they were in public, but wasn't quite happy about it. He didn't care if they were seen and usually neither did Hanamaki. But although the schemer loved the attention, it was only when he was in charge. When it was the other way around, the boy seemed to curl up into a ball out of embarrassment. It was utterly adorable and Matsukawa wanted to show it off to the world but at the same time he did have mixed feelings about letting others see such attractive sides of his beloved. Hanamaki was his, and only he should be allowed to see the man in disheveled and embarrassing states.

"No?" Hitoka inquired, daring a look the two through her fingers. "You don't...fancy each other?"

Hanamaki let the befuddlement be seen on his face as he cocked his head to the side as a befitting gesture. "Fancy? Umm.." Hanamaki was lost on what to say. The phrasing was so uncommon that he couldn't find a proper answer to it.

"We do, we're going at it like bunnies," Matsukawa smirked, fully aware of the consequences of his rather crude remark regarding the situation and that it wasn't exactly the answer befitting the question but what could he say? He too enjoyed some mischief once in a while.

"Issei!" Hanamaki punched his boyfriend to his chest, never before believing that he was someday acting as the more sensible one. "You're going to disgust the girl."

Ah, that was the reason, Matsukawa immediately realized. Hanamaki had received some rather ill-willing comments because of his sexuality, which evolved into something quite nasty, and generated a trauma from it. Even though it had happened a while ago and the man was seemingly over it, the small aspects of the trauma lingered. For example, he seemed to always think that heterosexual people viewed him, and other gays, as something disgusting.

"Babe, calm down. She doesn't think so. Do you, Hitoka-chan?" Matsukawa grabbed a hold of the fist on his chest and fished the other hand in between his own palms. He massaged them to generate warmth and to calm the boy down. Without himself realizing it, Hanamaki had started to breathe heavily, marks of agitation evident in him. If left alone, he'd have a panic attack.

"Eh? I just thought I interrupted you two and I felt bad about it..." Hitoka mumbled, sort of at a loss as to what was going on because all she could focus on was that two tall, attractive, men were being very affectionate in front of her and her face was about to go up in flames because of it.

"See, everything is alright." Matsukawa quirked a lazy grin, his trademark feature, at the pink haired man and squeezed his hands encouraginly.

Hanamaki eyed the man with eternal boredom etched onto his face. Then he glanced at the petite girl with blonde hair, who clearly felt uncomfortable but apparently for different reasons than he had thought. Now that he was looking properly, it was actually painfully obvious. She couldn't stop glancing at them but immediately averting her eyes as if what she saw was R-rated and she was by no means allowed to view it. Like a kid trying to watch porn and knew it was wrong.

Now Hanamaki just felt stupid. And embarrassed by his overreacting. He bonked his head at Matsukawa's face, effectively hitting his nose and making the man release a few expletives. "Thanks," Hanamaki mumbled face hidden.

"Yeah, anytime you feel like violating my ability to enjoy freshly grounded coffee, feel free Hiro." Matsukawa complained, trying to soothe the pain in his nose by rubbing it.

"You only need your taste buds for that," Hanamaki pointed out, face still buried in Matsukawa's chest.

"Mind you, I'm practically addicted to the smell."

"Junkie."

Hanamaki stepped away from his own personal safe haven and turned towards Hitoka. "We want this little princess," he pointed towards the blue cage they were standing next to just as Boss lady came up the stairs.

"Oh, how surprising. Is it your first time raising a hedgehog?" Boss lady inquired as she walked over.

Both boys nodded.

"In that case, Hitoka can help you guys grab all the necessities and give you basic information. Show up to the register afterwards and I'll prep your new family member for the trip."

Excited, Hanamaki rushed over to Hitoka, dragging Matsukawa along. The calmer man couldn't help chuckling at the impatience in his boyfriend's steps.

While leading the duo down a few aisles and pointing at everything they needed Hitoka was happily blabbing about what they needed to know. How they could create a space for the hedgehog into a cabinet or on the floor if they had the space and proper walls. How the temperature needed to be warm to prevent the small animal from getting a cold or going into hibernation. All sorts of things from bathing sand to it's diet and seeing as Hanamaki was almost bouncing of the walls, Matsukawa made sure to memorize everything. He knew that Hanamaki would come later crying about it to him.

When they had everything the needed, a pile of stuff in Matsukawa's hands while the other boy was holding only a couple small toys, they orienteered towards the stairs which would take them back to ground floor. Seeing as the petite clerk was so knowledgeable, Matsukawa figured it would only be polite to ask if she owned any pets. Who knew, maybe she also had a hedgehog and their babies could become friends or something.

"So, Hitoka-chan, do you have a pet?" A simple question from a simple man. Nothing else. Matsukawa couldn't have imagined the answer.

Hitoka's eyes lit up like like Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. It seemed like she'd burst if she held back any longer so she let herself loose.

And Matsukawa regretted opening his mouth, deeply. It was as if he had cracked the Pandora's box. Hitoka was excitedly chattering about 'budgets' and their coloring and genders and personality traits and genetic traits and all other stuff Matsukawa had seriously no clue had anything to do with monetary affairs, or pets, at all. He felt like he was back in high school suffering through a biology course but in Hebrew or Finnish or something equally horrendous language. He understood absolutely nothing.

"Budgets? Coloring? What is going on?" Matsukawa whispered as he glanced at Hanamaki. "I thought I asked about pets?"

"She's probably talking about budgies, not budgets." Hanamaki figured. He remembered reading some post about them on his Tumblr dash once.

Matsukawa still didn't get it. "What's the difference?"

Hanamaki eyed his boyfriend with utmost disbelief. How could he still not get it?

"Budgies are birds."

Matsukawa stared at the pink haired man with a comical expression. "Say what now?"

"Yeah, they look a little like parakeets, you know, colorful and noisy." Hanamaki helped, reminding himself of the fact that his boyfriend had zero knowledge regarding exotic animals. The man couldn't even tell the difference between an akita and a spitz for the life of him.

"...birds?" Matsukawa repeated feeling sort of unconvinced.

"Birds." Hanamaki concluded.

Hanamaki turned back towards the girl gushing on about her beloved pets and object of major interest. He thought of that quality of her's - the bubbling excitement, the pure passion - and couldn't stop himself from being slightly envious. He didn't have a passion for something, and he didn't have a future plan to follow. He was more like drifting along the currents.

"Okay! Let's go pay for this shit! I wanna see my little princess," Hanamaki singsonged, rushing towards the register and thus effectively cutting off Hitoka's monologue. He dumped his holdings onto the desk wasting no time proceeding to adore his new family member sitting skittish in the blue cage, fully ready for a travel but terrified of the what's to come.

Matsukawa reached the register a few steps later but was unsure where to unload everything he was carrying. Boss lady nodded towards the desk and after shrugging his shoulders Matsukawa dropped everything on it. The clatter was louder than expected as all sorts of plastic objects and bags of necessities hit the surface of the desk. Additionally a drinking tubey rolled over the edge, clunking on the floor and continued rolling. Matsukawa stared at it. Hanamaki stared at it. Boss lady stared at it. Hitoka glanced at the boys and then at Boss lady.

Boss lady gave Matsukawa an unapproving look shaking her head. "I didn't tell you to dump them on my desk like a sack of potatoes."

"Sorry," Matsukawa apologized sheepishly and went to fetch the runaway tubey. He gingerly placed the thing standing next to the computer screen and backed away a step. He pushed his hands into his pockets, indicating that he wasn't going to touch anything until ordered otherwise.

"Okay, dearies, all is done and signed. Now, what you two need to decide on is the name. What will you call her?" Boss lady smiled warmly at the two as she handed the paper over to them and pointed at the empty line. She left the ballpoint pen on top of the paper and gave the boys their time, knowing the deciding to require some time.

Hanamaki was excitedly pondering multiple options every one crazier than the one before. He had always liked naming things, for example plants. They never complained but flourished when showered with adoring words and their very own names.

After a while of pondering and tasting the names on his tongue, rolling the words around his mouth, flipping them this way and that, comparing the syllables and sounds, what sounded pleasant and what not so much, Hanamaki was down to two. He was undecided between Belladonna Pointy Von Spikes and Harrietty de la Spikerton. Both had great potential and possibilities for cute nicknames. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to go Spanish or Dutch. Both had a certain appeal to them.

"Kiichi." Matsukawa announced.

Hanamaki stared at the man taken aback by his choice and the fact that before Hanamaki had even managed to voice his opinion on the matter, he had proceeded to scribble it down on the paper and make it official. All by himself.

Hanamaki latched onto Matsukawa's shoulder about to pull him away from the paper but he underestimated the curly haired man's speed when writing kanji. He was already finished and looked satisfied with himself. Slightly disappointed but still curious, Hanamaki eyed the the neat handwriting over the muscular shoulder as Matsukawa placed the pen back onto the desk.

Kiichi (貴一) was written with the first kanji of Hanamaki's name as well as Matsukawa's. And Hanamaki immediately knew what it meant. The meaning was perfect. The symbolism was perfect. 'The precious one.' And of course the fact that he used both of their names. He didn't care for a minute that it was a boy's name. Hanamaki was swooning. Kiichi was perfect. She'd be the most badass little princess ever.

"What do you think?" Matsukawa smiled, a rare, slightly nervous one playing on his lips.

"I love it." Hanamaki squealed and hugged his man, tying his arms around his waist and burying his nose into the crook of his neck.

As Matsukawa placed his hand on top of Hanamaki's, his smile grew wider. It was full of warmth and Hanamaki felt his heart skip a few beats. That was a look of love and Jesus fuck did it make immediate jello out of Hanamaki's knees.

"That is a lovely name. Boys, and Kiichi, have a nice day and do come and visit anytime you wish to." With that Boss lady finalized the papers into a folder for both parties respectively and smiled kindly as a goodbye.

In the mean time Hitoka had been efficient as well as kind, for she had packed all their shoppings into two compact bags. After handing them over to Matsukawa, seeing as Hanamaki had opted for carrying Kiichi, she bid them farewell while waving.

After exiting the store Matsukawa stopped and addressed Hanamaki. "You had something to say when we were cleaning up our mess. Before. What was it?" He wanted to know, just remembering about the interrupted conversation.

Hanamaki turned back to look at Matsukawa, taking a while to remember. "Oh, that." He turned a bit sheepish, faint blush covering his cheeks as he opted for staring at his Converses instead. "I was about to concede the aquarium..." Hanamaki gave a nervous chuckle at the end.

Matsukawa full on laughed at him, finding the situation a bit ridiculous. They ran to buy what they wanted, an aquarium and a lizard, and prevent the other from doing their purchase but ended up adopting an adorable hedgehog together. Didn't exactly go according to plan.


	4. Entangled duo and a cramped loveseat

Matsukawa spied at his boyfriend over his reading glasses, very much amused. The energetic bundle of ingenious remarks and cotton candy for hair was sprawled on their green loveseat, cradling a spiky ball of adorable. Kiichi was giving him trouble, obviously not enjoying the activity too much. She was being spiky and defensive even though all Hanamaki wanted was to play a little.

After being pricked for the umpteenth time Hanamaki let out a low whine laced with some sadness. Matsukawa took this as his cue to get his ass off of the kitchen stool and intervene before the waterworks began. It's not like Hanamaki was on the same level as their pain in the ass friend Oikawa, but he was a drama queen none the less.

Matsukawa remained undetected by Hanamaki until he gently grabbed boy's pricked hand. The action warranted a surprised yelp but the hand wasn't withdrawn. Instead he let Matsukawa turn it this way and that for a quick inspection.

The standing man let out a small sigh at the sight of blood trickling from a tiny puncture wound on the index finger. He guided the finger into his mouth and wrapped his lips over it, gently licking at the wound with his warm tongue.

Hanamaki flushed beet red at this, not expecting the action. It didn't help that the wet and warm feeling around his finger felt sort of erotic in his opinion.

In the exact moment the thought passed in Hanamaki's mind Matsukawa locked his eyes with him and swirled his tongue skillfully around the finger in a caressing manner. He obviously knew what the blushing mess of a man had thought about and took mild pleasure on bewildering him even more.

Hanamaki bit his lip more forcefully than originally intended, stopping the surprised moan from escaping.

After one more skillful movement of his tongue, Matsukawa released the finger, satisfied that no more blood was flowing. He smirked at his boyfriend's expression, the man clearly excited for a continuation even though he was holding himself back. Matsukawa basked in the expression reserved only for him but decided to tease the man for his amusement a bit longer. Neglect play always earned him a variety of reactions, and mostly very pleasing ones.

Thus ignoring Hanamaki's growing plight, Matsukawa reached for Kiichi, opening his palm for the little girl and with no hesitation the small being took advantage of the offered escape route. She climbed Matsukawa's arm as if she were a squirrel climbing her home tree and in no time at all had she reached the man's shoulder. Matsukawa eyed the small animal fondly offering his finger for her to study before he was allowed to stroke her fine spikes.

Hanamaki fumbled over his words in annoyed astonishment, irritated that the pleasure he had imagined was denied him after receiving such a performance, but envious of the way Kiichi jumped at the chance to be stroked by Matsukawa. Why didn't she love him that much?

Suddenly Kiichi lost her balance after being momentarily unfocused, she slipped from her place on the shoulder and fell, but with fast reflexes Matsukawa gently caught the small being. He let her recover from the shock before offering a quick bellyrub and a kiss as tender as a brush of feathers. He placed Kiichi back into her enclosure made out of an old cabinet with glass doors and she sprinted off to her favorite place to sleep on.

Matsukawa chuckled at the cuteness. She reminded him of another, similarly clumsy but with nimble feet, always looking for an escape in him, making their safe haven not a place but a person. A quality, Matsukawa held in the highest regard for it was a sign of love and utmost trust, placed all in him.

"Why does Kiichi like you better?"

Surprised, Matsukawa turned to face Hanamaki. He studied the man, searching for the hidden meanings behind his words, looking for the self-deprecative nuances he knew the boy plagued himself with. And as per usual, he found a few. This time in the small whiny tone and the pause, when nothing was said after an inner battle to restrain himself before going on a tirade he'd hate himself for.

"She doesn't, she was just tired since it's morning. Don't belittle yourself, Hiro," Matsukawa chided fondly, well-aware of the man's bad habit though glad how much better he had become during the years. In the beginning he had been a wreckage curled behind a sturdy armor of self-deprecating humor and snarky comments equipped with keen eyes and quick wits, veiled in false pretense and secrets. It had been a huge struggle to chip away at that armor.

"I would forget to if I was preoccupied with other things," Hanamaki muttered, eyes trailing to their glass windows adorned with vapid curtains fished from a bargain sale. They were in fact quite horrendous, but he didn't care enough to get new ones, nor did he wish to spend money on such things that mattered so very little to him.

So this time's neglect play resulted in this, Matsukawa mused. He'd wished for Hanamaki to seduce him instead for it happened 7 out of 10 times in such situations but turned out that wasn't happening this time. No, well, this was also a seduction of sorts, Matsukawa corrected himself, although it was dripping of guilt-tripping and neediness. He did not wish to make Hanamaki feel discouraged or open old wounds and although they were nearing the topic, he knew it hadn't been caused by him. The boy had been feeling blue all morning since they woke up and had tried to seek comfort from Kiichi, quite unsuccessfully.

But Matsukawa did not mind. He didn't need to see his lover happy and energetic everyday, he knew that to be impossible and never asked him to either. All he asked for was for Hanamaki to share everything with him, the good as well as the bad, and let him pamper the boy whenever he was feeling low or depressed.

Matsukawa leaned over the back of the loveseat and sank his fingers into Hanamaki's poofy hair. He felt Hanamaki shudder at the touch and so he hummed, pleased.

Hanamaki shifted, unconsciously leaning into the touch. Matsukawa's fingers scraped his scalp tenderly a couple of times, soothing the man, before they started to wander. Unhurriedly, seemingly aimless, lingeringly but definitely going lower.

Reaching his right ear, Matsukawa fleetingly ran his thumb over the rim, then the back of the ear, letting his fingers continue downwards. He let his touch rest on the back of Hanamaki's neck and gently tilted the man's face to a more kissable angle.

"Tease," Hanamaki complained but was more than happy to comply with what was happening. He let Matsukawa press his lips on his and wasting no time allowed him access.

The fight for dominance was short, Hanamaki succumbed to the pleasure so quickly that it warranted an amused grumble from Matsukawa. Not that he minded it. Even as he thought it to be quite worrisome, it also gave Matsukawa a satisfying thrill when he saw the man lying under him completely at his mercy and shuddering in pleasure as well as anticipation. He just hoped the man wasn't as weak to pleasure around other people. He wouldn't allow it. The right to make a mess out of Hanamaki was his, and his only.

Matsukawa slid his tongue against Hanamaki's, trailing all the nooks he already knew better than anything else but was still addicted to. Hanamaki tangled his hands up into Matsukawa's dark locks and started tugging when the kiss was starting to become unbearable. Giving the boy what he demanded, Matsukawa released his mouth.

The sight underneath him was thrilling and he could have kept watching it forever. Hanamaki gasping for air, cheeks flushed, eyes unfocused. He was loosely holding onto Matsukawa's shirt with his other hand, stretching it but the dark haired man couldn't care less about the piece of clothing. It was in the way in the first place.

"Enjoying yourself?" Matsukawa teased, lowering his hand from the back of Hanamaki's neck. He trailed the helm of his shirt, lifting it, exposing the boy's flat abdomen, smirk growing on his face.

"Screw you," Hanamaki breathed out when his capability to speak returned to him.

Matsukawa chuckled. "Noup, I'm gonna screw you."

He lowered himself, throwing his left leg over Hanamaki's hips, lifting his right one on the other side of them, straddling him. The loveseat was cramped but Matsukawa was more concentrated on the man underneath him. The beautiful plump lips, lithe but trained body, tousled peach pink poof of hair velvety to the touch and those eyes. Hanamaki had a pair of the most miraculous amber eyes, a magnetic deepness in them so intriguing that you didn't want to divert your gaze even if the boy seemed to be able to read past, present and future with one glance of them.

Matsukawa caressed Hanamaki's abdomen, trailing his fingers up and down, left and right, going close but not enough, taunting him.

"Urgh! Idiot!" Hanamaki complained, writhing with the anticipation but annoyed when it wasn't fulfilled.

"I wanna hear you say it," Matsukawa whispered and Hanamaki had to groan. The redness of his cheeks spread, tainting even the back of his ears with the same hue.

Matsukawa slid his hands higher, bundling the shirt above Hanamaki's chest, revealing two pert nipples. "You're horny," he noted, satisfied with himself.

"Yes, Captain Obvious! Now do something about it!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"I can't deal with this any longer!" Annoyed Hanamaki tried to sit up, struggling to kick Matsukawa off him but the man pinned him down swiftly. Hanamaki tried another method, grinding his hips upwards and then snaking out underneath but was stopped again. The man was like a hanging noose, loose at first but when you struggled it tightened around your neck, leaving less and less escape routes available until there was none.

"Oh my god! Just fuck me already!"

Matsukawa's grin was like the Cheshire cat's when he finally got what he wanted. "With pleasure," he purred and attacked Hanamaki's neck. Hands trailing, searching, mapping. Matsukawa found his fingers working on Hanamaki's nipples, tweaking them to elicit delicious moans that bubbled past the other boy's lips out of pleasure.

With rough kisses, he marked a pathway leading down, making a brief stop at the right nipple. He captured it between his teeth and felt the lithe body underneath him go stiff for a second. Matsukawa knew it was out of expectation. This time, he relented. He bit down on the nub, with enough force to elicit a shocked intake of breath and a whimper, but not hurt.

Hanamaki clutched Matsukawa's shoulders, trying to push the man away from the sensitive body part that was driving him nuts. The man refused.

Without relenting his claim on the tender nipple, Matsukawa snaked his hands around Hanamaki's and directed them above the boy's head and on to the arm rest. He locked the limbs there under the hold of his right hand and returned his left to pleasuring the man. All the while playing around with Hanamaki's right nipple. He was biting it gently, licking it and pulling it and repeating the actions in an unexpected cycle, keeping the boy on the edge.

"Ngh, st- stoph," Hanamaki pleaded jerking his unattended hips up in search of some attention. He felt like his other nipple was burning while other went unnoticed and it was unbearable. The stimulation was too much but all he could do was moan, whine and beg for it to end after Matsukawa locked his hands above his head, allowing him to do nothing with them.

"What do you want?" Matsukawa breathed around the nipple, sucking on it to emphasize his point of focus.

Hanamaki let out a whiny string of vowels, dripping in pleasure. He tried tugging on his hands, testing if he could free them but Matsukawa only squeezed them a tad bit harder. It was exciting. It was humiliating. It was hot. Hanamaki wanted more, but he was too embarrassed to say it. No, he needed more was more accurate. The one-sided attention was driving him mad as he felt his racing heart beats thundering at the same rhythm as the throbbing burn on his right nipple still under the attack of that skilled tongue.

"Tell me what you want." Matsukawa repeated, this time his question an order instead and Hanamaki could have come from the tone alone. He didn't, thank the lords, but he could have. It sent shudders down his spine, the good kind. The exciting ones. And in that moment, he knew he was going funny. How could he enjoy being dominated by Matsukawa so much?

Matsukawa lifted his eyes, lips parting but teeth and tongue still glued to the abused chest and nipple. He quirked a brow, pulled at the nipple and immediately after licked at it. 'Ask me,' he was silently urging.

Hanamaki shivered at the look and felt himself slowly loosening the excess tension from his lower body. He wasn't fighting it, he was inviting this time. He pushed his hard-on against Matsukawa's, desiring more friction, but the man above was immovable like the rock, mounted on place, watching every move. Not giving in until he was begged. And so, beg Hanamaki did.

"I need you. Inside." Hanamaki tried, the humiliation strangling his voice.

Matsukawa finally released his nipple but his warm breath was now hitting against it every time he took in another gulp of air. "What do you want and where?" The authority was eminent. Matsukawa's voice was a clear and commanding low rumble, one which made the other boy succumb even more.

Hanamaki studied the man's eyes, dark black spheres, like mirrors. He saw himself reflected on them, his disheveled state at the complete mercy of the man above him. He felt another shudder wreck through him. He thought he looked...kinda lewd. Was that what Matsukawa saw when he looked at him?

Mustering all he could of himself and his courage, he begged, pleaded even: "I want your hard, hot cock inside, hitting my deepest parts and fuck me to oblivion!"

A wild smirk appeared on Matsukawa's face at this. He felt a sick thrill run down his spine and excitement shaking through him like electric shocks bouncing every which way. He smashed his lips down on Hanamaki's, roughly stealing the boy's breath. His hand wandered low, at first almost dancing on Hanamaki's skin, touch intimate but gentle, but the lower he got the more desperate his touch became. When he reached the waistline of Hanamaki's sweatpants the boy underneath eagerly arched his hips, pleading for more direct attention to his lower regions.

While fervently kissing the life out of Hanamaki, Matsukawa fondled the bulge that seemed to only harden in response. Matsukawa's own had been seeping pre-cum into his boxers for a while now but his self-control had been sufficient enough to manage teasing the other boy without exposing it. But now that self-control was starting to crumble into a pieces and his touch become more feverish by the passing second.

When he tried to slide his hand under the waistline of Hanamaki's sweats he encountered a problem. Should he continue, he would be able to stroke Hanamaki's member and pleasure him enough to make him cum once or twice but his own lust wouldn't be sated with just getting off once. And fucking Hanamaki would be physically impossible while half-straddling him. The boy couldn't spread his legs on the stupidly narrow loveseat. Not to mention the bottle of lube was safely tucked away in the drawer of their nightstand in the bedroom, not conveniently on the coffee table next to the loveseat. Matsukawa cursed inwardly. Reality was so inconvenient. In his fantasies he could have already fucked Hanamaki to euphoria.

Matsukawa ceased in his actions weighing his choices. The abrupt stop warranted a confused look, quickly following a slightly irritated rise of an eyebrow from the man with pink, hair, ears and face all in the same hue. Hanamaki clearly wasn't pleased.

"We have two choices. Either you straddle me and we make do with your cum-"

"I haven't cum," Hanamaki sharply pointed out in an annoyed huff.

"Yet," Matsukawa denoted. "Or we move to the bedroom. Your choice." He continued his proposition.

Hanamaki looked evidently miffed but seemed to ponder the options. Matsukawa waited. It wasn't really his choice to make, knowing as Hanamaki would be the one on the receiving end of the strain. It was his body, so it was his rules and thus ultimately his choice.

"You really know how to break a mood, Mattsun," Hanamaki sighed exasperated that Matsukawa knew to be 85% faked. As he had mentioned, Hanamaki liked being a bit dramatic from time to time. Not that Matsukawa minded.

"This is more important. I don't want you to hurt nor regret this," Matsukawa explained, like he had many times before, and planted a gentle kiss on Hanamaki's exposed shoulder. He had long since noticed that Hanamaki didn't value his own body as he should. He wouldn't easily voice his insecurities or if he felt uncomfortable unless straightforwardly asked. He wouldn't seriously suggest anything for his own pleasure but for his partner's. He would put on a strong front, a brave front, one of an ideal lover even. He'd act spoiled if his partner so desired, carefully testing the boundaries and what the partner wanted, but he'd never be truly spoiled. Matsukawa was patiently working on changing this.

Hanamaki huffed as a response, turning his head to stare at something on his left. This, although it looked like annoyance, was honest embarrassment, Matsukawa knew.

"...room."

"Hm? I didn't catch that," Matsukawa lied.

Hanamaki blushed harder, turning redder than their neighbour's roses on their veranda as he tried again, a bit louder. "The bedroom."

Matsukawa smiled. "The bedroom it is. Good boy," he kissed Hanamaki behind his ear, an act of innocent affection and stood up. Hanamaki was about to follow, still nursing his red face and refusing to meet Matsukawa's eyes directly, but the barely taller man wasn't having that. He grabbed Hanamaki from under his knees and upper-back and in one smooth movement lifted the man up in a princess-carry. His muscles tensed, visibly bulged under his casual black V-neck and he did feel the strain. Although Hanamaki was tall, he was lithely muscled and weighted considerably less than Matsukawa. He was very well able to carry his boyfriend into their bedroom from the living room, although the other was kicking up a vocal fuss about being heavy and whatnot. Well, Matsukawa did thank the heaven's for the fact that the bedroom door was already open. Otherwise it could have been a ridiculous situation, for while he could carry the man, he wouldn't have been able to open a door with both of his hands occupied. Good bye attempted romance if that had happened.

Matsukawa dropped Hanamaki on their bed and in a swift movement slid his shirt over his head and dumped it haphazardly on the floor. He proceeded to the buckle of his jeans, clipped it open, unbuttoned the jeans, slid open the zipper and pushed the pants down. He had been wearing skinny jeans, an unfortunate choice of clothing he realized, so he had the pull his leg out of the pant leg. It was difficult but he managed to get one leg free. Out of laziness he lifted his still clothed leg and tried pulling that one out the confinement but forgot to pay attention to his balance. He almost fell and face-planted onto their bedroom floor. To correct his balance he hopped on one leg, struggling with the stupid piece of clothing still hanging on out of pure spite and malice, Matsukawa figured.

When he was finally free, wearing nothing but a pair of navy blue boxers, in front a small stain reminding him of their earlier make out session on the loveseat, he turned to the bed and where Hanamaki was waiting. He saw a giggling mess curled up, struggling for breath.

"What?" Matsukawa cocked his head to the side, obviously unabashed of his almost-nakedness.

"Mood killer. From now on your nickname will be Mood Killer. I can't-" Hanamaki let out a loud giggle and tried to catch his breath in the middle. "I can't, oh my god, there's absolutely nothing sexy in how you undress. It just so, oh damn I can't breathe! It's so stupid, what are you a 40 year-old virgin cartoon character?" The man was practically howling in laughter, rolling on the bed arms clutched around his mid-section because apparently he was laughing so hard it was starting to hurt.

Matsukawa lifted an eyebrow. "It couldn't have been that bad," he muttered as he kicked the pile of discarded jeans further away from himself, making a mental note to not to wear skinny jeans if he wanted to 'undress sexily'.

"You were hopping on one leg!" Hanamaki howled, evidence of laughter tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

"Okay, fine. It wasn't sexy." Matsukawa stepped up to the bed, and crawled over the still snickering boy. "Buy I don't appreciate the last comment. We're barely in our mid-twenties, and you of all people should know I'm no virgin," he smirked at the end and this made the boy look at him again. Matsukawa's fingers worked the helm of Hanamaki's shirt and pulled it over his head. He threw the article of clothing somewhere to his left. He placed kisses on both of Hanamaki's shoulders, collarbones, sternum and navel. When he neared the waistline this time he pulled everything down, the sweats, the boxers, both. Hanamaki let out a squeak of surprise but helped the stripping to the best he could.

When Hanamaki was underneath him stark-naked, Matsukawa reached over to the nightstand's drawer and fished the tube of lube. He was kneeling between Hanamaki's legs, everything in plain sight in front of him. He relished the position. Seeing everything was great.

"Why the hell am I buck naked and you're sporting soiled underwear?" Hanamaki complained, crossing his arms over his chest in a pouting manner.

"You know, although fully naked, you're not being exactly sexy right now either. And you could have ignored the last part."

"Fuck you."

"In a minute." Matsukawa smirked.

"Caterpillar eyebrows."

"You love my eyebrows."

"I swear they're alive. Wriggling like that."

"Oh, like this?" Matsukawa wriggled his talked about eyebrows causing Hanamaki to groan and pound his chest.

"Stop, stop it now! Ew, they're wiggly," the pink haired man complained and Matsukawa couldn't suppress a hearty laugh.

Matsukawa slathered his fingers with the lubricant, a smell of vanilla wafting from the substance. It was disgustingly sweet but Hanamaki seemed to like it so what the hell. He leaned over, about to lay a hand on the pearly white skinned naked body in front of him but was very quickly stopped before he could do so.

"I think you forgot, but I still see some inequality here that hasn't been fixed." Hanamaki brought up again, earlier laughter seemingly forgotten.

"How about you change that? My hands are a bit busy..." Matsukawa suggested and continued with his earlier agenda. He skimmed the tip of Hanamaki's half-hard cock, making the boy slightly jump from surprise. He slid his finger down the shaft, teasing, before wrapping his fingers properly around it. At first he began pumping the member in a slow rhythm but soon he quickened his pace.

Hanamaki writhed because of the pleasure, enjoying it but wanting more. Somewhere else. It was frustrating. But all that bubbled past his lips were moans, coherent words lost.

Placing scattered kisses on Hanamaki's inner thighs, Matsukawa felt his heartbeat quickening and lust engulfing him. Everything he saw was pink hued, as if he was watching Hanamaki unfolding through red-tinted glasses. He heard his heartbeat hammering through his chest and felt the blood rush in his ears- no, felt his heartbeat and heard his blood rushing? Matsukawa was unsure what his senses were telling him or how to describe them, his own excitement probably exceeding Hanamaki's even though he was the one one-sidedly handled. It didn't matter, the sight, the feeling and the sounds were more than enough to throw him over the edge. He couldn't hold on much longer.

He probed around Hanamaki's hole, pleasantly surprised that it was twitching and seemingly very eager to accept him inside. He pushed one finger and immediately the body tensed, reacting to the invasion. It felt tight. Worried Matsukawa removed the finger and grabbed the tube of lube. He splurted a generous amount between Hanamaki's legs, making the other jump and scream all of a sudden.

"That's hella cold!"

"My mistake," Matsukawa apologized with a tiny frown. He forgot that the stuff was freakishly cold when applied no matter how you tried to warm it up.

Matsukawa immediately continued with his fingers, slipping one back in, this time it went smoother. He quickly added the second and probed around, looking for the prostate, because he knew Hanamaki enjoyed fingering before actual fucking. He hadn't verbally said so, but Matsukawa had figured it out quite quickly.

"Stop, I'm gonna- Ngh..." Hanamaki whimpered, trying to push Matsukawa away by his shoulders but was doing a very half-hearted job at it. The messy but incessant handjob the man was giving him made his muscles tense but also weak and although he was more than familiar with the feeling, the not knowing how to handle it was still there. He liked it but he hated it. It felt great but it annoyed the heck out of him. And why did Matsukawa always take care of him first? Why couldn't they feel good together? Why was it always only Matsukawa who made him feel like that?

"Already? Aren't you-" Matsukawa wasn't able to finish his sentence when Hanamaki let out a shocked moan, tears forming in his eyes. The feeling of Matsukawa rubbing his prostrate sent him magnificently over the edge, making him cum all over the man's hand and his own stomach.

"Wow, you're sensitive today..."

While coming down from the euphoric high, irritation was building in Hanamaki. He felt embarrassed from coming so soon and he felt annoyed at Matsukawa for causing it. And the hard-on evident in the man's boxers, completely unattended, was infuriating Hanamaki. Why was he even wearing them when Hanamaki was stripped naked already? That had to change!

Hanamaki tried sitting up, about to strip the man but couldn't. Matsukawa stopped him short by kissing him wildly. His tongue invading, pushing against Hanamaki's, making him involuntary whimper out of sensitivity.

Matsukawa withdrew his fingers while still immersed in the kiss, molding their lips together in a quest of finding the perfect angle. Hanamaki let out a muffled mewl, the emptiness surprising him and making him feel needy. He wanted something to fill in the place, to make him feel fulfilled. His prostrate was still tingling and he knew he wouldn't want a second time so fast but he wanted to please Matsukawa. He just wanted to feel Matsukawa inside him and please him too. The man always put him first and it infuriated Hanamaki at times like this.

"Issei..."

"I know, I'm at my limit too." Matsukawa pulled the stained boxers off with the grace of a gorilla with hangover and threw the clothing somewhere in the general direction of the other abandoned clothes. He was too worked up to care how he looked. Instead, he fixed his eyes on Hanamaki, traced the marks marring that usually perfect alabaster skin and easily pulled him closer so that he could better align himself.

Hanamaki fisted the sheets, waiting for the slightly painful sensation of being stretched but expectant of the following satisfying feeling of being filled.

Matsukawa changed his hands to Hanamaki's hips, grabbed them and pushed. The sensation was making it hard for Matsukawa not to cum then and there. Inside Hanamaki was unbelievably hot and tight, Matsukawa worried if he hadn't prepared enough lube but the shuddering man's mumbled reassurances convinced him. He started a slow and steady rhythm, trying to make Hanamaki used to the feeling. Only then would he really let himself go. Well, he was trying to. Planned to. Was supposed to. Really, most likely should have. But.

After the first strangled 'more' Matsukawa was a goner.


	5. The duo in love: Just to make him laugh

Hanamaki opened his eyes to a pleasant view. Curly black tufts in the corner of his eye, a muscular chest rising and falling at a calming rhythm under him, a strong arm draped over his waist. But the best part was the warmth. Matsukawa was like a living hot water bottle. He practically radiated warmth and since Hanamaki was prone to cold, he loved sleeping and waking up in Matsukawa's embrace. It felt warm and safe.

Out of some incoherent thought Hanamaki slid his hand up Matsukawa's chest and stopped where his heart would be. He let it lay there and just listened, felt, waited. He wanted to feel Matsukawa's heartbeat. At first he heard nothing. Maybe he was too occupied. Hanamaki tried to even his breathing even more, to be as still and quiet as he possibly could. Then he finally heard it. A steady 'badump, badump' could be felt just underneath his right palm, and how utterly heavenly was that simple feeling. It was so calming that Hanamaki couldn't suppress an almost drunk smile from forming on his lips.

All of a sudden Hanamaki felt a gentle kiss on his head and the arm draped over him squeezed just a bit tighter. "Good morning," was mumbled into his hair.

Matsukawa sounded sleepy, his voice a low rumble in his chest and that just made Hanamaki want to snuggle closer. He knew Matsukawa wasn't exactly a morning person and neither was he. So, cuddling in the morning was awesome. Just the two of them all alone, no rush anywhere and no need to do anything. Such peace on an exceedingly average Monday morning...

"IT'S MONDAY!" Hanamaki shrieked when he realized his mistake. He slapped Matsukawa's chest with enough force to make the other man wince audibly and then he rushed out of the bed. Tangled in their shared blanket, Hanamaki battled to free his feet but in the process, kneed his boyfriend somewhere he really shouldn't have. Matsukawa cried out a few selected expletives as he reflexively covered himself with his hands.

"Hiro, what the hell are you freaking out for?" Matsukawa managed to moan out, still caressing his attacked body parts.

Hanamaki managed to clear himself from the clutches of their blanket but during the ordeal he didn't manage to pay attention to his surroundings. He forgot where the edge of the bed was while trying to find support with his hand and thus, missed anything solid by a good five centimeters. "Idiot, it's Mon-DAYY!" He squawked as he stumbled backwards from the bed, hitting the floor with a loud 'thump' and the declaration of the specific weekday turned out rather emasculating with his tone going up a few octaves.

Matsukawa glanced over the edge of the bed, cocking his eyebrow, questioning. He saw Hanamaki sprawled onto the floor, massaging his shoulder that had apparently taken the worst of the fall. The blanket no longer covered anything so the man sat there in all his naked glory. Matsukawa would have liked to joke on that but Hanamaki had more to say.

"It's a weekday doofus and we're late to work." Hanamaki grumbled out as he made his way towards their bathroom.

Matsukawa rolled up from the bed, a bit too fast of a movement for his preference in the morning, he suffered through the minor dizzy spell, and followed his boyfriend. He reached the bathroom just as Hanamaki stuffed a toothbrush into his mouth and with rigorous rhythm started brushing his teeth. Matsukawa stepped in, grabbed his own toothbrush from the holder cup. "Just saying but you're the only one who's late. I work from home today," Matsukawa pointed out before he too shoved the brush into his mouth.

Hanamaki let out a few high pitched, dog-like, whines before he spat out the toothpaste and water he used to rinse. "Are you kidding me?" Hanamaki jumped into the shower, splurted a generous amount of shampoo into his hands and started furiously massaging it into his scalp. Matsukawa attempted to join him when he finished with his teeth, but Hanamaki rudely pushed him away with shampoo blinding him thanks to the water pouring over him. "No way, get out! It's cramped, you're horny and I'm late!" Hanamaki complained as he tried to wash away the liquid stinging in his eyes.

"Yes way. Make room, you're just gonna keep hurting your eyes so calm down and wash it away. I'll help you with your hair." Matsukawa forced himself in the small excuse of a shower and ignored Hanamaki's grumbles that quickly faded when Matsukawa's skilled fingers found his scalp and did their magic. Hanamaki would have been melted butter if the panic of being late wasn't hammering through the back of his skull. But he was calmer, at least momentarily.

After finishing the express-scalp-massage-hair-washing Matsukawa might have and might not have let his hands slip a bit lower than originally was supposed to. Hanamaki was quick to correct that as he hit the man with a soap bar. Granted it wasn't exactly effective a weapon to cause pain but it served it's purpose. When Hanamaki jumped out of the shower tying a towel around his waist and rushed to their closet to find appropriate clothing, Matsukawa was left behind with enough soap in his mouth to last a while as a reminder to obey when ordered to.

From the closet Hanamaki pulled a pine green and white striped T-shirt and a pair of dim grey jeans to dress into before he rushed into the living-kitchen area. From the side table he grabbed his laptop bag and stuffed a few papers he knew he'd need from the same table and into the bag. As if he could hear the clock ticking, which he couldn't, seeing as they only owned a digital clock that didn't tick, he hurried into the vestibule and kicked the same pair of Converses from the day before yesterday into his feet. He left the shoelaces untied because he didn't have time to do it, and just as he was about to run out the door Matsukawa appeared in the doorway.

Dripping of water, seemingly not even bothering to grab any clothes after he was finished with his shower, since he sported nothing but a white towel tied around his waist. Hanamaki couldn't stop admiring his flawless skin that was a shade or two darker than his own and the lean muscles that were in painfully obvious view. And the jet black mop of tangled and curly hair that decorated his distinct facial features was like framing on a painting. It only helped to accentuate them more.

"Don't forget your keys," Matsukawa reminded him and threw the keyring with a very apparent key fob of a bright green Pepe hanging of it at Hanamaki who readily caught it. Matsukawa did ponder if Hanamaki's clients took him seriously with that key fob but apparently the man excelled in his job, so he most likely needn't to worry. He didn't voice that opinion though, he knew better. Instead he wore the ever so lazy grin on his lips and humor in his dark eyes as he leaned on the doorway and crossed his hands over his chest looking smug.

"Don't look so smug while dripping water everywhere, you're gonna mop that while I go to work." Hanamaki concluded and turned to twist the door handle. He pushed open the door and before stepping out, glanced back because Matsukawa still had something to say.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll feed Kiichi too so don't worry about that. What you should worry about instead, is the train. You have around 7 minutes to make it and the station is 10 minutes out. Have fun!" He waved, enjoying the panic on Hanamaki's face as the realization dawned on him. The man cursed loudly, conjuring a very vivid picture of persimmons and Satan's mother's ass with the train conductor if he couldn't catch that train apparently. Matsukawa was once again surprised by the creativity of a copywriter, and couldn't help chuckling as he walked over their messy jumble of shoes to close the front door Hanamaki inconveniently left wide open.

"Your lover has a way with words and mental imagery," a neighbor popped from the door next to theirs and very unabashedly gave Matsukawa a pleased once-over.

Matsukawa cocked a smirk at that and couldn't help puffing out his chest a little for added measure. He was proud. Proud of his lover and the effect he had on others. Hanamaki was magnetic, everyone was drawn to him like moths to fire on late summer night.

"Oh you have no idea," Matsukawa laughed and finally turned to his neighbor to take a better look at him. The man sported a ridiculous bedhead and a red jersey, and he was walking towards Matsukawa with a wicked grin.

"Is that so. How about you?" The man stopped one step before him and turned out to be quite tall, actually pretty much the same height as Matsukawa, well plus the hair he mused. Thanks to the rather rooster-like feature Mr. Neighbor seemed to be a tad bit taller. At that point Matsukawa really didn't care, the weird hairdo was making his thoughts escalate as he wondered about it. What did he do to get his hair like that? Hair gel? Wax maybe? Matsukawa for sure didn't understand. No matter what he did, he couldn't tame his curls, let alone try to style it in any way. They just didn't behave. The hairdo reminded him of another person with similarly ridiculous hair. That one was dubbed 'Horned owl' so this one should be 'Rooster head'. Hanamaki would kick up a laugh from it for days, he knew.

"What is your specialty? I mean besides the whole sauntering naked in the hallway of an apartment building for the world to see? That's good too, lots to show off I admit. You should do it more often." Mr. Neighbor continued when Matsukawa showed no indications of answering. Well, he would have answered but he got sidetracked and sort of missed his chance. It happens. Good to know that their neighbor seemed very amused even while having a monologue. This time though, Matsukawa figured he could humor the man.

"I am wearing a towel, in case you missed," he pointed out. He was starting to find the man intriguing. He was quick-witted and interesting. "And if you must know, my special skill is getting dirty." He tugged on his towel knot for added measure but was careful enough not to undo it. The gesture was more than enough to catch the other's attention. The grin on the man's face widened like a Cheshire cat's.

"You see, Hiro is, as you earlier pointed out, a master of mental imagery. I do better with the physical aspect. Do you want a demonstration?"

Mr. Neighbor took a better stance, tried to do something with his hands but figured better of it since he then stuffed them into the pockets of his jersey. He seemed eagerly expectant of the continuation, but under his partial facade, slightly unsure. Matsukawa had a pretty good guess as to why, so he wasn't worried. Amused yes, but not that worried. He'd seen the name plate on the door.

"Kuro. If you open your mouth one last time I will chop of your dick and make you eat it. At least then you might manage to keep it to yourself." A short man with cat-like eyes and hairstyle that reminded Matsukawa of pudding had appeared next to the man called Kuro, who Matsukawa knew was actually named Kuroo. The same man who had a very troubled expression at the moment.

"Kenma this was nothing..." Kuroo tried to argue and seeing as the man's tone was borderline pathetic Matsukawa had a genius idea. He kicked an unfortunate navy blue sneaker of Hanamaki's, which had been chosen as an innocent sacrifice, to Kuroo's feet just as the man was turning towards his very threatening flatmate. Kuroo conveniently and exactly as intended, tripped over the shoe. And in the process totally crushed the said shoe so Matsukawa knew he needed to do some explaining later, but he decided to worry about it then. When Kuroo stumbled, Matsukawa took a step forward to help the man balance himself.

Kuroo tried to take support from Matsukawa's shoulder but his reflexes failed him and he missed. With a swing, his hand found itself grazing Matsukawa's waist. Right where the towel was tied into a knot. A knot that could have been done tighter. But it wasn't. The towel fluttered down limply and pooled around Matsukawa's legs revealing, well, everything.

Kuroo very openly stared at Matsukawa, with surprise and mild interest at first but very quickly it morphed into horror. Oh my god I saw and he saw that I saw! Was practically etched onto his face. He whipped around, tried to at least, but the innocently sacrificed shoe was still mixed in his steps and he tripped over it again. This time stumbling all the way to his knees, and into a way worse of a situation than it originally was. Matsukawa didn't really plan for that to happen but he held his pokerface through it.

Kenma looked at his boyfriend, eyes steady and cool, demeanor calm and collected. He hadn't moved an inch during the whole ordeal and something seemed to compel him to stay put. Matsukawa tried to assess his mental state but the short boy's face revealed absolutely nothing. Difficult person to read, he deduced. And potentially homicidal? Should he stop now?

While Matsukawa pondered his options, Kuroo had found some modicum of self-preservation and crawled backwards on all fours from his precarious position in front of and mere inches away from Matsukawa's naked dick. When he deduced himself to be at a safe distance he stood up, faced Kenma and with one deep breath started on a ramble of apologies and self-deprecating insults which pretty much ended in him begging for forgiveness. Kenma didn't even look fazed. In fact he was still cool as a cucumber. When Kuroo was going on about something regarding muffins and video games and slavery, did the pudding-head finally react. By disappearing into their apartment.

Matsukawa was taken aback by the action and one look at Kuroo told him that the man too was dumbfounded. Kuroo was about to follow his boyfriend and so Matsukawa crouched down to pick up the dropped towel. He was just tying it around his waist again when Kenma emerged from the apartment, passing by Kuroo without even a look in his direction. Icy, was all Matsukawa could think about. Nothing else could describe the man better in his opinion.

Kenma walked up to Matsukawa and handed him a piece of paper with ripped edges. Matsukawa figured it was a corner of some print-out but when he turned it around he saw writing. Hand-writing actually. It was an email address drabbled quickly but with clear letters. And it said 'Kenma.' Matsukawa glanced at the short man who gave him the slip and couldn't suppress lifting an eyebrow in question.

But Kenma was no longer there. He had already gone back, effectively even locking the door after him, leaving a beyond stunned Kuroo standing in the hallway like a fish on dry land. Matsukawa had to stifle an entertained chuckle as he chose to ignore the over-confident man, who failed in his flirting and had his ass handed to him by his younger boyfriend. He went back inside the apartment craving breakfast and he knew so was their pet princess Kiichi. He had wasted enough time on humiliating Kuroo for the day.

xXx

With a triumphant 'I'm home!' Hanamaki pulled close the front door behind him. He dropped his carrier bag to the floor and kicked off his Converses. He was hungrier than he had been during lunch hour when all he had managed to wolf down was a cup of instant noodles. So, his first heading was the kitchen, accompanied with wishful thinking that Matsukawa had been an attentive boyfriend by cooking him dinner. He found himself disappointed when no pots or pans were visible anywhere, no signs of any cooking utensils even being touched in the kitchen, meaning no dinner for him. Matsukawa had been home all day, why couldn't he have at least managed dinner? This annoyed Hanamaki, the rational thought of, even if Matsukawa was home he too was busy working, flying away and being replaced with spiking anger.

Hanamaki stomped towards Matsukawa's studio, his 'baby', as he liked to affectionately call it, ready to smash something if his stomach wasn't soothed soon.

"Issei?!" He bellowed from the doorway.

Matsukawa jumped from his stool, knocking over a container full of paint that splashed a beautiful rusty orange all over the thankfully covered flooring and the unfortunately not protected in any way wall. Matsukawa stared at the disastrous scene, contemplating either never telling their landlord anything or trying to paint over the wall again. But the former option would be unveiled at some point so, yeah, that would be just ignoring the problem, but the latter idea meant ridiculous amount of work. He couldn't just paint white over it and be done. For one, only one coating wasn't enough to cover up something as glaring as rusty orange, and painting one wall with new paint meant that the other three walls would look dirty in comparison. Effectively it meant re-painting all four of the walls in the room. As previously mentioned, ridiculous amount of work.

"Damn, Issei! The wall! It's, it's freaking red!" Hanamaki cried out in shock, his tone accusing and completely unaware of Matsukawa's inner monologue just before.

Matsukawa whipped over to Hanamaki, ticked off by the tone of voice used towards him. "That is actually rusty orange," He pointed out, not having a better comeback because he was well aware that the paint was his own fault, but he wanted to at least have something over Hanamaki. Being correct about the color didn't make him feel any better though, in fact it felt plain silly.

"Who cares about the color! There's paint all over the wall! We are renting this place Issei, we can't have paint all over the wall!" Hanamaki stressed his latter point by flailing his hands at the same time. He came closer to the scene of chaos trying to asses the damage better, forgetting all about his hunger and the reason for being angry in the first place.

"I know that," Matsukawa mumbled, reluctantly admitting it.

"Can't you paint over it?" Hanamaki inquired, analyzing that the splatter reached from Matsukawa's working table all the way over to the ceiling, thank heavens it wasn't on the ceiling though. That would have been a bitch.

Matsukawa shook his head as an answer. "Not unless we paint over every wall. Otherwise it's gonna stick out."

"Who's we?" Hanamaki asked, crossing his hands in front of his chest in a defying in posture. "There's no way I'm gonna touch a paint roller."

Matsukawa made a face.

"It's ridiculous amount of work to do alone," Matsukawa complained but was starting to feel resigned to do it in any case. The cost of the paint alone would be drilling a hole in his monetary situation but what could he possibly do?

A loud grumbling sound startled them both, Hanamaki blushing up to his ears and Matsukawa staring wide-eyed at his boyfriend. "Was that your stomach?" Matsukawa asked, fighting back the burst of laughter he felt coming.

"So what? I'm starving! And you haven't cooked anything!"

Matsukawa dug his phone from the pocket of his pants and waved it in front of Hanamaki. "You do know home-deliveries are a thing? Pizza's here any minute now."

"Oh my god, I love you!" Hanamaki jumped at his boyfriend and tied his arms around his neck. They twirled round with the momentum and finally Matsukawa could let out the repressed laugh.

"So, am I now forgiven?" He inquired as he tied his hands around Hanamaki's waist.

"Yeah, thanks to the pizza."

"Mhm," Matsukawa nuzzled Hanamaki's peach pink hair, enjoying the softness. He thought it funny how easily Hanamaki was angered but equally easy to be calmed down too. Literally one sentence was enough to do either or both.

"What if we ask the landlord if we can paint that wall into an accent wall? And promise to cover the expenses ourselves? I can talk to him." Hanamaki suggested and raised his head to look at Matsukawa's face. He wanted to see whether the other approved of his idea or not.

Hanamaki didn't need to be worried though, for Matsukawa was enthralled by the suggestion. He'd wanted to do something about the horrible walls the minute they had moved in but since it was a rented apartment he had figured it to be impossible. Also the idea of working on apartment wall was intriguing. It was different from his normal job and he was excited by the new prospect.

"And this is why you're the clever one. Please do that," Matsukawa rejoiced just as their doorbell rang. "And that would be dinner," he knew and slipped from Hanamaki's hug to get the pizza. He grabbed his wallet from the sidetable that usually housed only Hanamaki's possessions and went to open the door.

In the meantime Hanamaki strolled to Kiichi's enclosure to see how his little prickly princess fared. He found her crawling around her apparent favorite nook of the sand bath looking busy. Hanamaki opened the glass door and attempted petting the small being but she wasn't in the most welcoming mood. She turned prickly as she turned to glare at Hanamaki, who stopped his hand in mid-air feeling threatened by the look. Why was she always like this towards him? What had he done wrong? Hanamaki withdrew his hand and glanced at the water bottle and noted it empty. Wasn't Matsukawa supposed to be the responsible one?

Hanamaki detached the empty bottle from the enclosure and carried to the kitchen sink to fill it up. When it was done he brought it back and fixed it back to its original place. Hanamaki watched as Kiichi trodded over to the bottle and nibbled at it as she drank from it. She seemed satisfied and Hanamaki couldn't but sigh at the sight. She was cute, no matter how much she rejected Hanamaki. He still loved her.

A ping was heard and Hanamaki stuffed his hand into his pants' pocket. He recognized the chime for messages and as he unlocked his phone he saw that it was from Yahaba, who lived on the same floor in the apartment building opposite from them. They usually saw each other in the mornings, when they left for work around the same time, because the buildings were mirror images of each other and thus the corridors were adjacent. Unlike Hanamaki, Yahaba worked two jobs, his normal day job and then there was his hobby job he seemed to be stupidly more serious about.

Hanamaki swiped open the message and saw that there was a photo attached to it. He clicked it first. Up popped a photo of his boyfriend, butt naked standing in the doorway of their apartment his towel pooled around his legs, and a man with the wildest bed hair Hanamaki had ever seen was kneeling in front of Matsukawa his eyes glued to his crotch. Next to the man stood a short and petite boy with their overgrown, blonde hair in a pudding-shaped haircut. It was comical. The pudding head wore a look that threatened murder, the bed head's facial expression was blurry but seemed like a mixture of interest and horror and Matsukawa sported a crooked grin with surprise mixed in. Under the photo, Yahaba had written 'Ur bf has game. The rooster head is h0t. If they fuck I wanna see it' And if not the photo, the comment ticked Hanamaki off a little. Why did that little shit think it was his job to gossip about Hanamaki's relationship?

'Stop fantasizing about my bf you sicko' Hanamaki punched in an answer for Yahaba. The reply was lightning fast.

'Excuse me I'm a professional manga artist, it's my job' Was Yahaba's text, accompanied by a picture of a messy name, i.e. draft storyboard, he was currently working on. Hanamaki caught figures that reminded him of Issei and the crazy bed hair dude.

'Drawing porn about other people's bf's does not make you a professional, ur a stalker. Don't insult the manga industry'

'R00d. U should be glad, u'll always know when ur being cheated on when if Ima here' Hanamaki wanted to slug the phone as far as he could and he contemplated whether or not he could strangle Yahaba to death without being caught by the police.

'He's not cheating on me.'

'U sure? I would. Bed head's H0T. Have u seen his abs? I'd pay 10,000 yen to lick them' Hanamaki scowled at this, no he hadn't even met the stranger so he had no idea of his abs, but Yahaba was seriously taking it too far.

'I'll tell Mad dog-chan' He threatened, knowing the aggressive man to not like his superficial boyfriend lusting after other men.

'U wouldn't dare. He'll attack ur bf' Hanamaki barked a laugh at this, just in time for Matsukawa to walk back into the living room with the pizza. The man lifted a questioning eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

'Hah, Shige-chan, the joke's on u. Mad dog-chan actually likes Issei unlike u' Hanamaki typed and hit the send button as Matsukawa lowered the pizza on the coffee table. He ventured then to the fridge to grab a bottle of coke and two glasses to accompany their meal.

Hanamaki jumped onto the loveseat and switched on the TV, scrolling down the channels in search of something relatively entertaining to watch as they ate. His phone vibrated again, Hanamaki having muted the device after starting the conversation with Yahaba. The endless ping-sound annoying him every time he didn't mute it.

'Bitch' Was all Yahaba sent and Hanamaki felt like a victor. It was one thing if he himself started feeling inadequate or insecure in his relationship with Matsukawa, but if someone else, like Yahaba, were to insinuate something like that it set him on a warpath. The only one allowed to make him feel miserable were Hanamaki himself and Matsukawa. Others people's attempts infuriated him more than depressed him.

"You didn't answer my question," Matsukawa pointed out as he sat next to Hanamaki on the loveseat and proceeded to open the pizza box. He grabbed a slice and pushed the box towards Hanamaki.

"Well, when it comes to questions unanswered, I have one of my own." Hanamaki flipped his phone towards Matsukawa with the photo displayed on the screen. "Care to explain?"

Matsukawa almost choked on his pizza slice. "Where the hell did you get a picture of that?" He chuckled and that assured Hanamaki automatically. Matsukawa wouldn't have chuckled if it was something he wanted to hide from Hanamaki especially.

"Yahaba," Hanamaki answered and Matsukawa nodded in understanding. "Ah, I'm not surprised anymore." This time it was Hanamaki's turn to nod.

Matsukawa took another bite of his pizza slice and lowered the volume of the TV they'd put on in search of some interesting show. "Those," Matsukawa gave a laugh, "are our new next door neighbors. Interesting couple."

Hanamaki had no idea they even had new neighbors, so this was news to him but he believed Matsukawa. He always did. There was no reason not to. "Okay I get they're neighbors but seriously what's up with this situation? Yahaba was so turned on that he's drawing manga out of you two or three."

Matsukawa made a face at that. He didn't care what Yahaba's job was or what his hobbies were but being drawn as a character in his porn manga with their next door neighbors was awkward. "I hope he won't publish that. Think what Oikawa would say if he saw? I'd never hear the end of it."

"You do know that Yahaba has published works starring Iwaizumi, right? Oikawa actually bought them all and then trashed Yahaba's entire apartment because Iwaizumi's partners in those mangas weren't "worthy" of him." Hanamaki reminded his boyfriend. Oikawa's priorities were all out of whack even more so when it came to his childhood friend-best friend-infatuation-lover and thus they really shouldn't care what the pretty man's opinion was.

"You got a point there. But isn't that kinda like an invasion to privacy or something? Is it even legal to publish those?" Matsukawa pondered, wolfing down his third pizza slice, while Hanamaki was still nibbling on the first one. The pink haired man wasn't adept at eating and talking at the same time, the eating always got ignored in the equation.

"Yahaba named all the characters 'Iwata' and added the text 'this is a work of fiction and any similarities with real events or people are a pure coincidence' and apparently that's enough to avoid all illegalities, I guess." Hanamaki's explanation made Matsukawa hum with half-baked acknowledgement that said he understood enough but didn't care to continue the topic.

"Returning to the original topic, what transpired to achieve that photo?"

Matsukawa licked his fingers after finishing the third slice and glanced at Hanamaki. "I think both of them tried to hit on me." He grinned as he looked back at the events from earlier that morning. And he told Hanamaki everything. Right from the moment Kuroo started hitting on him to when Kenma gave him his number and locked Kuroo out of their apartment. And as Matsukawa presumed, Hanamaki was howling with laughter. He couldn't stay put as he tried to catch his breath from laughing too much. His hands were tied around his mid-section in a futile attempt at easing the strain on his abdomen.

"How-! Oh my! Why-! You we- were naked!" Hanamaki was snickering so hard that coherent words were escaping him. "Why on Earth were you so composed standing naked in the corridor with a stranger kneeling in front of you staring at your crotch?!"

Matsukawa couldn't stop himself from joining Hanamaki and laughing at the situation. "I have actually no idea. Maybe because I knew it would make you laugh when you heard about it?"

The shock put an end to Hanamaki's laughter, replacing it with awe. "You did it for me? You can't be serious."

"Well, I couldn't have orchestrated the whole ordeal, that was all on Kuroo and Kenma. But I do admit that I let it escalate freely." Matsukawa admitted.

"Why?" That was something Hanamaki had troubled grasping. Why do that? What could be the purpose? It didn't amount to anything except to accidentally feed Yahaba's fantasies, ridicule a handful of people and amuse Hanamaki greatly.

Matsukawa snorted. "Because you needed something funny. You've been feeling down for some time now, so I wanted to make you laugh."

And Hanamaki cried at this. Happy tears, but it was an unstoppable waterfall. He was just so happy. And quickly that turned into amusement again and he couldn't help himself from laughing and crying simultaneously. Matsukawa had noticed. He'd cared. He'd done something silly because of it. For him. Just to make him laugh. Just how precious could a person be? But who the hell flirts with their neighbors, naked, just to make their boyfriend laugh? Hanamaki couldn't stop laughing for a long time.


End file.
